Tuesday, January 1, 2013

I'm a little late with this news today, but congrats to Lincoln Stars goaltender Michael Bitzer who was named the USHL Goaltender of the Week. Click here to read the official USHL press release. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Michael Bitzer, G, Lincoln Stars:The 19-year-old was in net for both the Stars weekend victories. On Friday, he made a season high 40 saves in a 2-1 overtime win against Tri-City. The Moorhead, MN native was then perfect on Saturday, stopping all 23 shots to propel the Stars to a 5-0 victory over Sioux City and earn his first USHL career shutout. In just over 124 minutes of action during the weekend, Bitzer posted a 0.48 goals-against-average and .984 save percentage. He has won each of his last three starts, having only allowed two goals in that span, and is a winner of six of his last eight starts. The first-year USHL goaltender leads the League in both GAA (1.90) and SV% (.926).

Second straight week that a member of the Lincoln Stars won a weekly award from the USHL. Last week, Michael Bunn was named forward of the week.

Great to see the league give some recognition to Bitzer, which is way overdue, in my opinion. There have been a few times already this season that I thought Bitzer should have won or at least shared the goaltender of the week award, but this was his first.

Glad to see Bitzer's hard work pay off with wins, and now this award. Personally, I think he's Lincoln's top goaltender right now and should be getting the majority of the starts. Hopefully this is the first of many weekly awards for Bitzer.